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Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman and I hope that his additional words, even at this late stage, will cause the Minister to think again. This short debate has illustrated a fairly strong consensus on the issue. Most people see the proposal as fairly modest.It is in line with Government policy, the recent announcement of a package of measures and the recent announcement on derating. It accepts that there are anomalies for certain types of premises. The proposal simply ensures that local communities will not be deprived. Finally, the Minister asked whether the owners of such halls, and the Orange Order in particular, could go to the insurers and talk to them. No doubt the Minister will be aware—some of his colleagues should be, as the Orange Order has made this clear to Ministers in talks—that this matter has been the subject of years of discussion and negotiation with insurers. The trouble is that those discussions are not getting anywhere. As a result, halls up and down the land either cannot get insurance any more or any insurance that is available to them is so exorbitant that it simply cannot be obtained. For those reasons, and in view of the expressions of support in the House, I shall press the new clause to a Division. Question put, That the clause be read a Second time:—"‘After section 9 of the 1983 Act insert—""(1) This section applies if an application for registration in a register of parliamentary electors of local government electors is made in accordance with the requirements for the purposes of section 10A(1)(a) below and is accompanied by—""(2) If the registration officer determines that the person is entitled to be registered, he must also determine whether the safety test is satisfied.""(3) If the registration officer determines that the safety test is satisfied—""(4) An entry containing the matters mentioned in subsection (3)(b) above is referred to in this Act as an anonymous entry.""(5) If an anonymous entry is made in respect of a person, the registration officer shall remove any other entry in the register for that person.""(6) If the registration officer does not determine that the safety test is satisfied, no entry is to be made in respect of him in the register (whether an anonymous entry or otherwise).""(7) Subsection (6) above does not affect—""(8) Any communication sent by a registration officer or the returning officer for any election to a person who has an anonymous entry (A) must be sent in an envelope or other form of covering so as not to disclose to any other person that A has an anonymous entry.""(9) The safety test is satisfied if the safety of the applicant for an anonymous entry or that of any other person of the same household would be at risk if the register contains the name of the applicant or his qualifying address.""(10) In this section, ““determines”” means determines in accordance with regulation.""(1) If a person has an anonymous entry in a register, his entitlement to remain in pursuance of the application for registration mentioned in section 9A(1) terminates—""(2) Subsection (1) above does not affect the application of any other provision of this Act or of the Representation of the People Act 1985 which has the effect that the person's entitlement to registration terminates before the expiry of the 12 month period mentioned in subsection (1) or before the cancellation of the declaration made for the purposes of section 9A.""(3) If a person's entitlement to remain registered terminates by virtue of subsection (1) above, the registration officer concerned shall remove his entry from the register, unless he is entitled to remain registered with an anonymous entry in pursuance of a further application for registration accompanied by a further application under section 9A.””.'.—[Mr. Reid.]" Brought up, and read the First time.